Prodigy, Hero, Hokage - Failure?
by PerfectCell
Summary: Hatake Kakahi's life is a story of countless accomplishments to those around him..but how does he view himself?


**A/N – This is set a year after the war.**

To everyone around him, Hatake Kakashi is one of the most incredible ninja to ever live. He was known as the copy ninja, having copied over 1,000 techniques. He was known as a hero in two separate wars. He was the man the Third Hokage entrusted to watch after the nine-tail's jinchuuriki. He was the man considered to be worthy of being the Hokage, even by people such as two of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya and Tsunade, as well as the 5th Kazekage, Gaara. He was known, respected and feared world wide.

He had accomplished all of that, and more, by the age of 31. People who didn't know his life would think he was the perfect ninja..but he knew how wrong that was. He knew his life was a failure. Being honored as a hero and chosen as Hokage wouldn't change that in his mind. That's why, as he stood there at the grave of his best friend, the only person who knew what Kakashi truly went through in life, he cried.

He was just a small child, prodigy or not, when his father committed suicide. Was there something he could have done to prevent that from happening? Could he have showed his father more love? Respect? He was happy that he had gotten to speak with his father after the "death" he suffered at the hands of Pain, but it wasn't exactly a replacement for his father not being there to watch him grow up. Watch him become a hero in two wars. Watch him become Hokage.

Then, there was Obito. The man who had tried so hard to be accepted by, and friends with Kakashi, yet was only ridiculed and pushed away by the genius. It took Rin being captured for Kakashi to realize his mistakes up to that point...and it was too late. If he hadn't have been so stuck up and so worried about rules and regulations, would Rin have even been captured? Would Obito have "died" that day? He doubted it.

Even when Obito's sacrifice gave him, as he viewed it, a 2nd chance at life, even that was screwed up. He knew in the back of his mind that killing Rin was the right thing to do. If he hadn't, it would have put the entire village in danger. Her being a spy for the Mist was beyond his control, but he still couldn't help but blame himself for being unable to save her from it.

Not too long after that, he had to watch his sensei sacrifice himself. This wasn't his fault, he knew that. But it didn't make it hurt any less that he had to watch one of the few remaining people that he loved in his life have to die.

Just as he was finally starting to come to terms with his life, he was finally given a team of genins that he viewed worthy of becoming ninja. Something no other team prior to them had accomplished. He thought, just maybe, he could do something good for this world. He could help mentor Naruto, his sensei's son and the nine-tail's jinchuuriki and help him become a respectable ninja. He could lead Sasuke down the right path in life, show him revenge wasn't necessary. He could help Sakura mature, help her realize her talents and show her despite not having a tailed beast inside of her, or a special clan's bloodline, she could potentially be the best of them all.

But that? He screwed that up too. He couldn't even mentor his students correctly.

Naruto was ripped away from him by Jiraiya. And why? Because Kakashi wasn't capable of protecting him. That was his fault too. He had slacked off on his training. This was only confirmed when Itachi beat him like a dog. What purpose did Kakashi even serve now? He couldn't protect his sensei's son? His student? All because he felt sorry for his self and didn't take his training seriously? What kind of sensei was he?

Stacked on top of that, Sasuke also realized Kakashi's shortcomings. He realized Kakashi couldn't train him to be superior to his brother. He couldn't even hold his own in combat with him. It made his choice easy. Orochimaru could do so much more for him than Kakashi could ever dream of. Hell, even when confronted with the opportunity to take Orochimaru down, Kakashi chickened out. He could have attempted to end it. He could have saved not only Sasuke's life, but Hiruzen's and all of the people who perished the day the Sound and Sand invaded Konoha. But...he was too weak. Too scared.

Sakura? Hell, he had pretty much forgotten about her. It was bad enough how he treated Naruto's training, but he just completely disregarded hers. At least Jiraiya and Orochimaru went to his other two students. Sakura? She went to Tsunade herself. Even at that age, she realized Kakashi was a failure. Heh. He couldn't even help 3 children.

Carrying Naruto back from the Valley Of The End, he would be lying if he said he didn't consider taking the same path as his father. Ending his own life for failing his village. But Naruto's hope and unwillingness to give up gave him some faith as well. If after all Naruto had went through hadn't pushed him over the edge, what excuse did he have for ending it all?

So, over the three years that Jiraiya had Naruto, and Tsunade mentored Sakura, Kakashi decided he was going to do everything in his power to make up for his failures with them. He trained relentlessly. He improved his stamina. He improved his ninjutsu. He improved his taijutsu. He discovered he had unlocked the Mangekyo Sharingan.

He wasn't going to stand aside any longer and watch as other people had to protect the ones he loved. He was going to do it. Jiraiya brought Naruto back to him and Tsunade released Sakura back under his leadership as well. He had done it. Maybe he would never get a chance to make it up to Sasuke, but he was going to do it for Naruto and Sakura.

Everything went well for so long. They had saved Gaara. He helped Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino get closure on the loss of their sensei, and take down the two Akatsuki members that caused his death. He protected the village when the Six Paths of Pain invaded, giving his life to save Chouji and help get information to Tsunade/Naruto to be able to defeat Nagato. He was able to die at least somewhat happy. He hoped he taught Naruto and Sakura enough to continue on without him, as he had no doubt that Naruto would be able to save the village from the invasion.

But Naruto did even better than even he had thought possible. Naruto had managed to convince Nagato to restore life to those Nagato had killed in the village. He had never been so proud in his life. Sakura was tending to all the injured..she truly did have what it took to become the greatest medical ninja to ever live. He got to carry Naruto back to a village that had finally accepted him.

It was all looking up until Kakashi learned of who he thought was Madara's plans to take over the world. Luckily, Danzo had been defeated and Tsunade had awoken from her coma, so they had a capable leader to lead them in to this war alongside the rest of the world. While his encounter with Sasuke in the middle of all of this had opened some old wounds, he was able to move on, realizing there was nothing he could do for Sasuke. He had to leave that in Naruto's hands.

He was given yet another honor he felt he wasn't deserving of. The 5 Kage had selected him as one of the commanders of the army. Despite not feeling as if he was worthy or capable of such a task, he decided he was going to do everything he could to not let the world down. After all of his previous failures, he owed the world this.

To his surprise, things went relatively smooth. They had taken out the Seven Swordsmen and the White Zetsu army. He and Gai made it in time to keep Naruto from being captured. He saw Naruto unleash his true potential, befriending Kurama, something he didn't even think was possible. When he had figured out Tobi/Madara's weakness, it worried him that his eye was in some way connected to Madara's, but he knew there was no time to worry about that. Naruto managed to land a hit in the kamui's dimension and break his mask.

When he saw Obito standing before him, for the first time since his encounter with Orochimaru, he froze in battle. This wasn't out of fear though. This wasn't because he was too weak. This was on a completely different level. When Obito explained to him the reason behind his choices, it brought back all of his old feelings. If it hadn't been for Naruto, Obito would have ended his life. But Naruto, like only he can, once again restored faith in Kakashi.

The battle drug on, feeling like it was never going to come to an end. Obito, Madara and the Juubi vs the entire Shinobi Alliance. So many lives were lost, including the man whose grave he was standing at today, Maito Gai. Gai, in an attempt to kill the juubi, activated the 8th Gate, despite Kakashi's best efforts to talk him out of it. Gai's sacrifice was meaningless in the end though, as the hole he punched through the back of the juubi simply regenerated. It wasn't until the arrival of the first 4 Hokage, who we learned were revived through edo tensei by Orochimaru, did the tide of the battle finally shift in our favor.

With Hashirama and Tobirama's combined efforts to seal Madara, they were able to focus their attention on the Juubi, which was being subdued by Hiruzen, Naruto and the shinobi alliance's combined efforts, while he and Minato-sensei focused their attention on Obito. We managed to kill Obito as Minato attacked him in our world's dimension as he attacked him in kamui's dimension. He managed to take his head off with raikiri in kamui's dimension, after learning attacking his body did them no good thanks to Zetsu's regeneration abilities.

It allowed everyone there to focus their attention on the Juubi. It eventually required the Hokages to resort to using Shiki Fuujin to each seal a quarter of the juubi's power in their bodies. As sad as it was to watch them have to be sealed inside of the Death God once again, it was the only choice we had to stop the beast. It at least allowed him a chance to apologize to Hiruzen for not acting in his encounter with Orochimaru and let him get to say a final good bye to his sensei, something he was robbed of in the past.

It wasn't long after that he learned of Tsunade's sacrifice to save the other 4 Kage. The funeral for her and everyone Konoha had lost in the war wasn't even over when he was practically forced to take the position of Hokage. There was still the threat of Orochimaru and Sasuke out there, and they didn't want to leave the village without a leader. He still couldn't figure out why Orochimaru had decided to assist the Shinobi Alliance by sending the Hokages to help defeat the enemy, his best guess was Orochimaru even realized he couldn't complete his own goals with Obito and Madara's Eye Of The Moon plan.

Nor could he figure out what was next for Sasuke. Itachi was dead, the Hokages revealed to us that they discussed the past and reasoning for their actions with him, yet there was no sign of him after the war.

Everything was peaceful for the next few months, but as he expected would happen, it didn't last very long. Politics was something he had never liked, and one of the biggest reasons he dreaded becoming and being the hokage. They had a Kage Summit 4 months after the war had concluded, and things got heated between Onoki and Ay, causing them to nearly come to blows, and eventually declare an end to their peace treaty. He, along with Gaara and Mei tried to calm the situation down, reminding them of what everyone had just been through, including bringing up how dwindled their military forces were after the war, but they were having none of it. The three, after their failed attempt at being peace keepers, all discussed what the next course of action should be, as Ay and Onoki had already stormed off, headed back to their respective villages to plan for their war.

The 3 agreed to try and stay out of this, but they all knew in the back of their minds, they'd all get dragged in some how.

Which leads us to today. Kakashi standing at Gai's grave, wondering what his friend would tell him at a time like this. Iwagakure and Kumogakure had made it known to the other 3 nations that if they didn't side with one of them, they were siding against them. Kakashi and Gaara both agreed to remaining allies and not picking sides in their war. They both reached out to Mei, but she felt the best course of action for the safety of her village was to ally with no one, feeling that hopefully they would leave Kirigakure out of it.

This was what once again broke Kakashi's faith in himself. This was yet another failure added to Kakashi's life. He couldn't even manage to keep the peace after a war where everyone had lost so much. As the kage of Konohagakure, he knew he held the most power out of the 5, given his village was the most powerful, but still failed. He didn't even have his best friend to help him through it, because HE failed to talk him out of his sacrifice. Was there anything he could do right?

The only thing keeping him going now was protecting the people of Konoha. As soon as Naruto matured enough to take over as Hokage, he would step down. He just hoped that wouldn't take too much longer, otherwise he knew he'd wind up screwing something else up as well. After all, that's the only thing he appeared to be good at in life.

Drying his eyes from the tears that had continued to form, and paying respect to people who were the true heroes in the war, he began his trek out of the cemetery, trying to think of a solution to the problems that currently plagued their world, even if he knew that any solution he came up with would likely end in failure.

**A/N – I hope this was okay..my first ever attempt at a Naruto fanfiction. It was really hard to write, as Kakashi is by far my favorite character of the series, but I figured why not try to take a different approach to a story about him.**


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